New Donors, same old practices? Development cooperation policies of middle-income countries.

Abstract

This thesis offers a framework to analyse the international action and the domestic repercussions caused by the engagement of middle-income countries (MICs) in global governance. Building from the cases of Mexican and Brazilian development assistance policies, this research analyses the motivations driving MICs to act as providers of development assistance. The thesis argues that MICs are increasingly using development assistance as a foreign policy tool in a similar manner to traditional donors. The key difference is MICs’ focus on becoming a donor as a way to increase international reputation, prestige, image and respect, elements that in their perception are crucial to gain influence and to actively participate in global decision-making.

A desire for improved reputation pushes MICs to pursue domestic transformations. By mirroring international standards MICs get approval from the North and the success of their development models produces the admiration of the South, transforming MICs into bridging actors with the capability to collect consensus from the North and from the South. Conversely, when MICs aim to build consensus around their own initiatives, they actively resist attempts to implement standards that may imply transformation of institutional settings, bureaucratic structures and practices along the lines of Western regimes. Consensus builders bet on the success of their public policy models to gain admiration and support from less developed countries. Support that provides consensus builders leverage to contest Western hegemony and to challenge established regimes.

Given the limited works on the motivations driving ODA (official development assistance) and few studies on emerging donors, this thesis presents a theoretical framework based on North-South ODA. The practices of ten traditional donors are analysed by breaking down the interplay of four policy-making variables (institutions, bureaucracy, interest groups and non-material factors). This framework is further developed for the analysis of the two case-studies, Mexico and Brazil. Empirical research is supported with evidence collected through 43 semi-structured interviews. The choice of within case-analysis and process tracing as methods of enquiry relies on the advantages offered for small-n research.

The thesis concludes that the methodological tools developed in these pages can also be used to analyse other domains of global governance. While the main objective of this research is to better understand the underlining motivations of South-South Cooperation and its use as a foreign policy tool. This study opens avenues for further examination on the aspirations of MICs in global politics beyond the development-aid agenda.